Microsoft Announces New MSDN Subscription Service Offerings

October 1, 2001
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REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 1, 2001 — Microsoft Corp. today announced pricing and availability for two new levels of subscription services to the MSDN® developer program that will provide its most important customers — developers — with the information and software they need to successfully build XML Web services and applications. Now every level of Microsoft® Visual Studio® .NET has a corresponding level of MSDN subscriptions, providing developers with a clear path from the tools to the services that will make them successful.

MSDN now offers five subscription levels, each tailored to suit the varying needs of professional developers. Through the priority access feature, subscribers to MSDN will continue to be the first to receive the latest Microsoft products, such as Visual Studio .NET, server and operating system technologies and product information. Subscribers to the new Operating Systems level and above received the highly anticipated Microsoft Windows® XP operating system on Sept. 24, more than a month before its scheduled Oct. 25 availability in retail stores.

Another feature of MSDN subscriber downloads and automatic shipments, provides subscribers to MSDN with access to beta technologies and the most comprehensive product information authored by the programmers and designers of the products; developers will receive the latest Microsoft technologies and information as they are released.
“MSDN has delivered on software as a service for many years. In that time, we have received a lot of feedback from our customers that has helped us improve the program and provide more value for developers,” said Tom Button, vice president of developer tools at Microsoft. “Our business depends on the success of Microsoft developers worldwide, and the new MSDN levels provide improved service and richer resources so developers can focus squarely on successfully building Web applications and XML Web services.”

In addition to the two new subscription levels, Microsoft recently launched a new academic MSDN membership program, the MSDN Academic Alliance, designed to meet the needs of students and education institutions providing instruction on software development. This program provides the students and faculty of computer science, engineering and information systems departments with the latest Microsoft technology for instructional and research purposes at an annual fee of $799 per department. More details on the MSDN Academic Alliance can be found at http://www.msdnaa.net .

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